REPEATED EXPOSURE TO SUGGESTION AND THE CREATION OF FALSE MEMORIES

Abstract— The purpose of the present study was to extend research on repetition and illusory truth to the domain of eyewitness suggestibility. Specifically, we assessed whether repeated exposure to suggestion, relative to a single exposure, facilitates the creation of false memory for suggested events. After viewing a video of a burglary, subjects were asked questions containing misleading suggestions, some of which were repeated. Their memory for the source of the suggestions was tested. The results show that following repeated (relative to a single) exposure to suggestion, subjects were more likely to (a) claim with high confidence that they remembered the suggested events from the video (Experiment 1) and (b) claim that they consciously recollected witnessing the suggested events (Experiment 2). The effects of repeated exposure were highly reliable and were observed over retention intervals as long as I week.     

Personality correlates of retrieval processes in intentional and unintentional forgetting

Early accounts of intentional forgetting relied exclusively on mechanisms that operate at encoding. The results of more recent experiments indicate that memory-retrieval inhibition also is involved, thus linking waking intentional forgetting with hypnotic amnesia. The present Experiment 1 was designed to provide further support for the retrieval-inhibition hypothesis by testing four alternative explanations for some of the recent results. Experiment 2 examined the role of word affect in both intentional forgetting and unintentional forgetting to evaluate theoretical interpretations of the retrieval mechanisms thought to be involved. Unintentional forgetting of negative words was consistent with a repression-like interpretation, whereas intentional forgetting of negative words appeared to be limited by sensitization. Personality correlates of the recall results were identified and were found to be in support of these interpretations.     

Learning capacities during sleep: A preliminary study in a group of schizophrenic inpatients

The relationship between sleep and learning processes is analysed in a sample of schizophrenic patients, starting from more recent hypotheses about the function of REM sleep in learning and memory processes. This is done by means of two experiments: in the first AA. evaluate the possibility to elicit a simple motor conditional reflex acquired during daytime in different sleep stages. With the second experiment daytime learning performances are evaluated with and without a reinforcement administered during REM sleep. Results for the first experiment underline a qualitative difference between REM and nREM sleep in a reflexological perspective. In nREM sleep the conditional response is better maintained than in REM sleep. The second experiment confirms the possibility to improve daytime learning performances after an additional presentation of learning material in REM. The joint study of sleep abnormalities and learning and cognitive impairment in schizophrenic patients is finally suggested.     

Personality Factors Related to Black Teenage Pregnancy and Abortion

Forty-eight pregnant adolescents who applied for therapeutic abortions (TAs) were compared with 55 adolescents who planned to have their babies (Terms) and 67 adolescents who were not pregnant (Controls) on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). All the subjects were single, Black, and aged 15 or 16. CPI results point to psychological differences with the Controls being most socialized, followed by the TAs, and then the Terms. Term girls seem to be experiencing a void and appear to be trying to fill it and assume an adult role by having a baby; the TAs do not seem to have these same needs. In addition, girls who became pregnant and described the relationship with the putative father as casual, appear on the CPI to have more daily problems, lack socialization, be less clear thinking, and have poor self-control. Pregnant girls who have good communication with their mothers showed no differences on the CPI from girls with poor communication with their mothers.     

Brilliant but cruel: Perceptions of negative evaluators

Using edited excerpts from actual negative and positive book reviews, this research examined the hypothesis that negative evaluators of intellectual products will be perceived as more intelligent than positive evaluators. The results strongly supported the hypothesis. Negative reviewers were perceived as more intelligent, competent, and expert than positive reviewers, even when the content of the positive review was independently judged as being of higher quality and greater forcefulness. At the same time, in accord with previous research, negative reviewers were perceived as significantly less likable than positive reviewers. The results on intelligence ratings are seen as bolstering the self-presentational explanation of the tendency shown by intellectually insecure individuals to be negatively critical. The present methodology is contrasted to that of previous research which obtained apparently contradictory results.     

Differential effects of identification with family and peers on coping with developmental tasks in adolescence

Adolescents from three Italian cities responded to a questionnaire concerning the particular peer-group with which they were associated and identification with their family, aspects of the process of coping with seven developmental tasks, and demographic characteristics. The participants were 1600 male and female teenagers, with a mean age of 16.28 years, who were approached at schools and various meeting places in three Italian cities. The study shows that effective coping with developmental tasks depends largely on the degree of identification with both family and peer-group. Those who identify with both social groupings show advantages in various critical situations. Adolescents only identifying with either family or peers get emotional and instrumental support from that group but not from the other, thus, they are supported in some critical situations but not in others. Adolescents who are unwilling or unable to identify with their family and/or their peers are less successful in managing the transition to adulthood than others who are close to their parents and peers. Consistent with the findings of previous studies, the type of group adolescents join, be it a formal group or an informal street group, has no significant effect on their coping strategies.     

The effects of a microcounselling programme with social work students: A preliminary look at cognitive issues

Microcounselling has featured widely as a systematic approach to improving the interviewing and counselling skills of a range of professional groups (Dickson, 1981). Reviews of research largely attest to its effectiveness in this regard (Baker & Daniels, 1989). The outcome criteria upon which such conclusions have been based have, however, been essentially behavioral and proximal. In an earlier study (Dickson & Mullan, 1990), only limited evidence for the generalisability of outcomes was forthcoming. This paper extends that work by presenting a preliminary investigation of the impact of microcounselling on some of the cognitive processes which are thought to mediate skilled performance. As part of a more extensive evaluation (Dickson & Mullan, 1990), a pre-experimental single group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the extent to which measures of locus of control (Rotter, 1966), evinced by a group of social work students, would change following a microcounselling intervention. Despite predictions of a move towards greater internality of control, no significant pre-post training differences emerged. This result is discussed within the context of the limitations of the design and, in keeping with the preliminary nature of the study, a number of areas for further investigation are indicated.     

A negativity bias in interpersonal evaluation

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate a bias toward negativity in evaluations of persons or their work in particular social circumstances. In Study 1, subjects evaluated materials written by peers. Those working under conditions that placed them in low status relative to the audience for their evaluations, or conditions that made their intellectual position within a group insecure, showed a clear bias toward negativity in those evaluations. Only individuals who believed their audience to be of relatively low status and at the same time believed their intellectual position to be secure did not show this bias. In Study 2, subjects viewed a videotape of a stimulus person and rated him on several intellectual and social dimensions. Again, subjects believed their audience to be of either relatively high or relatively low status. As a cross dimension, they were given instructions to focus on either the intellectual or the social abilities of the stimulus person while viewing the videotape. A strong main effect of audience status was demonstrated, but only in ratings of intellectual traits; subjects who believed their audience to be of relatively high status rated the stimulus person's intellectual qualities significantly more negatively. Moreover, this effect was independent of the instructional focus subjects had been given. The negativity bias is discussed in the context of previous demonstrations of biases toward weighting negative information more heavily than positive information, as well as previous demonstrations of seemingly pervasive positivity biases in memory and judgment.